


Summer Nights

by shessocold



Series: Hogwarts One Shots [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crushes, Fluff, Getting Together, Implied Relationships, Invisibility Cloak, M/M, Marauders Friendship, Marauders' Era, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Public Nudity, Sirius Black & James Potter Friendship, Skinny Dipping, Sweet, Teenagers, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 14:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13191564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shessocold/pseuds/shessocold
Summary: James suggests he and his mates go skinny dipping.





	Summer Nights

It had, of course, been James' idea. Or at least that's what Sirius mantained.

“Prongs says to take his cloak and meet him down by the lake,” he said, abruptly, around midnight. “We're going skinny dipping.” 

Remus, who up to that point had been lost in contemplation of a sliver of pale stomach skin he could see between Sirius' trousers and his untucked shirt, immediately assumed he had fallen asleep and was now having a rather unsubtle dream. 

“We're doing what?” 

“Skinny dipping,” repeated Sirius, casting the Muggle magazine he had been reading aside. “He wants us to meet him after he's done with detention, I forgot to tell you. Hurry up, we're going to be late.” 

And with that he got to his feet and started undoing his belt. 

“Sirius, what are you doing?” 

“Getting undressed, of course,” said Sirius, stepping out of his trousers. “We're going under the cloak anyway, no point carrying all our clothes to and from the lake. C'mon, Prongs is waiting for us.” 

Remus blinked. 

“I am not walking naked from our dormitory all the way down to the lake to go skinny dipping with you and James,” he said, more as a stern recommendation to his own subconscious mind than anything else. “That doesn't make any sense at all.” 

Sirius shrugged. 

“Suit yourself,” he said, folding his shirt into a ball and throwing it on his bed. His beautiful torso was pale and smooth, except for a trail of black hair that started from just under his navel and disappearead promisingly under the elastic of his underwear. “OK, I'm ready. Grab the Cloak.” 

Remus, now rudely made aware of the fact that he wasn't actually dreaming by Sirius' regrettable decision to keep his boxer shorts on, got to his feet and rummaged into James' trunk until he found his Invisibility Cloak. 

“Are you sure you don't want to at least take your shirt off?” asked Sirius, in what to Remus' slight surprise sounded like a vaguely hopeful tone. “It'll be a pain to carry all that stuff back to the castle after we're done. ” 

Sirius appeared to be in one of his moods, then – one of those random bouts of sudden, mildly lascivious expansiveness that Remus was never quite sure were as meaningful as he would have liked them to be. Remus, nevertheless, liked Sirius' moods very much, especially because they never seemed to involve any of their other friends, no matter how close he and James were under any other respect – always Remus, and Remus alone. 

“I shan't get undressed now,” said Remus, smirking, in a virtuous tone. “You'll have to have until we're actually in the water to feast your eyes upon my great beauty, you pervert.” 

Sirius laughed. 

“Let's just go, Prongs will be waiting,” he urged, but when Remus stepped closer in order to cover them both with the cloak Sirius quickly seized him by his upper arms and stood staring at him in silence for a few seconds, before leaning in to kiss him rather forcefully on his left cheek. “Ok, much better. _Now_ we can go.” 

** 

“Funnily enough, I can't see James anywhere.” 

“Well, it must have slipped his mind,” said Sirius, evasively. “We should go ahead anyway.” 

Remus grinned. The night was balmy, the moon was not even half-full, and Sirius was once again making up excuses to be alone with him. He saw no reason not to play along. 

“All right,” he said, folding James' Cloak neatly. Sirius was standing very close to him, and he was smiling, and for a second – his anxieties about not interpreting Sirius' signals correctly suddenly quite forgotten – Remus considered just kissing him then and there. 

“Oi, Padfoot, Moony! Sorry I'm late,” said James, sounding rather out of breath. Remus' head whipped around, and he saw that James had dropped his schoolbag to the ground and was already halfway through getting out of his school robes. “Filch kept finding issue with my armour polishing skills.” 

** 

“How sure are we that the lake is safe at night?” said Remus, whose giddy enthusiasm for his and Sirius' nocturnal adventure had been considerably hampered by James' sudden appearance. “What if the Giant Squid gets aggressive once it's dark out?” 

“Nah, it's OK,” said James, looking very odd without his glasses. “I heard the girls do it all the time.” he said, squinting as if he hoped to catch sight of a gaggle of naked girls somewhere nearby. 

Sirius snorted. 

“Wait, so the reason you're making us do this is you hope you'll run into Evans and, er, _dazzle_ her with your nudity?” 

“Of course not,” said James, indignantly. Sirius was howling with laughter. 

_Maybe not James,_ thought Remus darkly, _but I bet most girls would count themselves lucky if they were to run into Sirius without any clothes on._

He suddenly found that he was no longer having any fun at all. 

“C'mon, Moony,” said James, making a great show of ignoring a still extremely amused Sirius. “Shall we do it at a run? It might be better than inching our way in." 

“You go ahead,” mumbled Remus, starting to put his clothes back on. “I'm really not feeling well, I think I'll just go back to the castle.” 

“Oh,” said James. “Do you want us to come with? What's wrong with you?” 

“Nothing, just a bit of a headache. See you later.” 

** 

“Moony? Are you awake?” 

Remus considered pretending he was already asleep, but it had only been a few minutes since he had left them at the lakeside, so he didn't think Sirius would have believed him. 

“Yeah.” 

“Are you feeling better?” inquired Sirius, who was invisible. “Do you want me to go find Madam Pomfrey?” 

“No, thank you. I'm better already. Did you not go ahead with the lake thing?” 

“I wanted to check on you,” said Sirius, dropping James' Cloak. He was still in his underwear. “Prongs said he didn't mind.” 

“Wait, did you let James go into the lake alone in the middle of the night?” 

“Of course I didn't,” said Sirius, grinning. “Turns out the girls from our year _actually_ do the skinny dipping thing. He wasn't sorry to see the back of me, I tell you.” 

“Was Evans there?” asked Remus, also grinning in spite of himself. “Did James make a complete fool of himself?” 

“Yes to both of those questions, but to tell you the truth I don't think Evans minded as much as she would have normally,” said Sirius, standing at the foot of Remus' bed, where the moonlight from the window didn't reach him. “She actually looked rather impressed.” 

“Oh. Well, good for him!” 

“Yeah.” 

They were silent for a couple of minutes. 

“You know what,” said Sirius, eventually. “I was a bit disappointed when Prongs did actually turn up.” 

It was such an odd statement, coming from Sirius, that at first Remus thought he hadn't heard him correctly. 

“I'm sorry?” 

“I was disappointed when James turned up,” repeated Sirius, in a slightly funny voice. “I was rather enjoying being alone with you.” 

“Oh,” said Remus. “Yeah, me too.” 

“Especially because the plan involved getting you undressed.” 

Sirius had never been quite so blunt before. 

“Same,” said Remus, his mouth completely dry. “Sirius?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Do you want to get naked now? For me?” 

A few seconds of silence. 

“Would you like that?” 

“More than anything in the world, yeah,” said Remus, suddenly feeling much bolder. 

Another few seconds of silence. 

“Only if you do the same for me, then,” said Sirius, still hidden in the shadows at the foot of Remus' bed. He sounded like he was grinning. 

“Fair enough,” said Remus, his heart thumping wildly. 

_Thank Merlin from James' ideas,_ he thought, slipping out of bed to go stand in the patch of moonlight by the window. _I really owe him one._

**Author's Note:**

> Just a silly little thing from a prompt YouBlitheringIdiot gave me <3
> 
> I don't recommend going skinny dipping in bodies of water that contain giant invertebrates, no matter how cute the person peer-pressuring you into it might be.


End file.
